Executive secretary of the Food and Beverages Association of Ghana (FABAG), Samuel Aggrey, has called on the government to intervene in matters concerning industries and businesses as the sector contracted by 3.2% in the first quarter of the year.
According to him, the private sector and industry aspect of the country is what drives the economy forward. He revealed that the failure of the industries is tantamount to the failure of government, especially in its quest to ensure that there’s employment in the system.
Mr Aggrey indicated that because of the decline in employment, and the fact that government cannot employ, there is the need for government to create an atmosphere for the private sector to encourage them to employ more.
“So, government really needs to as it were, bring stakeholders and industry on board – take industry very seriously so that at least whatever they are doing, if they are running at a loss, you need to look at it. For you to go forward, you need to carry the burden of industry with you…”
Samuel Aggrey
Challenges of the industry sector
Furthermore, Mr Aggrey stated that if nothing is done about the situation, industry will go down in a very bad way, especially if it comes to growth. He explained that the figures as published in the Producer Price Index (PPI) vindicates the calls by the association on the need for government to reconsider certain policies impeding the growth of the sector.
“Unfortunately, this has not been done. As we see the inflation numbers coming down, we expect that industry will be the one to drive this economy to where it’s supposed to be. So, if industry is going down, then the economy is also going down. Because I don’t see how the industry will fail and on the other side, the economy is doing well…”
Samuel Aggrey
Highlighting on the challenges of the sector, Mr Aggrey noted that FABAG has persistently expressed challenges with electricity cost and water processing for use in the manufacturing sector, as they remain on the high side. With this, he urged government to consider separate tariffs for industry so that they can break even in the losses they are making.
Additionally, the FABAG executive secretary revealed that government must equally take a second look at the innumerable taxes drowning industries to the ground.
“If you have to give other incentives, as I said, you need to benchmark some of these incentives you give to industries for them to be able to capture certain areas and business will do well and manufacturing will also grow. But if we are not seeing all these things happening, then of course, we should be seeing further downward, even though we will be seeing small scale industries and other people coming on board in the manufacturing area. But this will not warrant the growth that we want to see.”
Samuel Aggrey
Moreover, Mr Aggrey stated that government must also be on the same page as industries on issues that border on their progress and survival. He emphasized that the industry sector should be growing at a pace of about 5% in a year, but unfortunately, it is going down by 4.2% which shouldn’t not be the case.
“So, government really needs to look at the figures they themselves have produced for us to be able to come on board. If you look at the IMF directives, we are supposed to grow as a country and we are not supposed to kill our industries. But what they have done is going to rather give industries more burden. If we are not careful, come the end of July, we will really see the figures on the table that will tell us whether we are going to make it or not.”
Samuel Aggrey
